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Thursday, May 10, 2012
Hello Everyone!
 First, we have NO SCHOOL tomorrow, Friday. It's a Teacher Record Day.
PORTFOLIO NIGHT is Wednesday evening.
Also, please note that our SCHOOL PICNIC is on aWednesday this year, May 30, from 5-7pm.
This picture shows our 4's class practicing for the preprimary assembly. They're singing Building a Better World.
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 Do join us next Wednesday, May 16, for Portfolio Night, from 3:45 to 6:30pm. Reviewing your child's portfolio -- actually, listening to your child review the portfolio -- is a great way to look at student growth.
You'll be asked to complete your portion of the MI Profile prior to PF Night. The MI Profile is the document that shows how your child's MI interests -- not skills -- are perceived by you, your child's teacher, and your child. This photo, taken a few years ago, shows a child sharing his portfolio with his mom. |
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In-house BOOK FAIR with Left Bank Books
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From Joe: Here’s a quick reminder that next week, on Wednesday, May 16, we will have an In-House Book Fair. Left Bank Books will be bringing a number of great books here for students and parents to purchase for summer reading.
I have chosen five or six books in a number of different categories including picture books, beginning chapter books, middle level chapter books, and upper level chapter books. LBB’s children’s book buyer has also chosen a number of books in each of these categories. Any and all of these books would make great summer reading for the kids or for the whole family. So come to the theater lobby, grab a great book, and help the New City School Library at the same time.
On Wednesday, we'll also have a table in the lobby of Founders Hall, between 7:45-8:45am and 3:15-5:30pm, with Library Wish List books for those who would like to donate a book to our library (thanks, in advance!). See you there.
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Spatial + Logical-Matematical
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 We conduct a series of board game tournaments throughout the year -- checkers, chess, Othello, and Boggle -- and the winners play one of our faculty members. We also conduct a t-shirt contest with each tournament, using the spatial intelligence to highlight either the linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligences. Students submit a design, and the winner is determined by kids voting.
Here's the winner of the recent chess tournament design, Henry Edmonds, posed with his shirt. Henry was a triple-winner, because he also represented his grade in the tournament, and he beat Tom too!
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Should we have school on MLK Day? |
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From Sheryl, Diversity Coordinator: Don't forget that our Families of Color Discussion Group is meeting on Tuesday evening, May 15. We'll be discussing the idea of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day being a New City school-wide day of service, rather than a day off each January. Check out this link: MLKing.Day
Free childcare is available that evening. Pizza, at a cost of $3 per adult/child, will be served at 5:45 in the Dining Hall. Discussion begins at 6:30. Please let me know if you will be joining us for pizza and/or discussion: sreardon@newcityschool.org. |
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Citizens Making A Difference, the 4th grade's theme
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 The 4th grade's year-long theme isCitizens Making A Difference, and they focus on responsibility and leadership -- making a difference -- throughout the year. As part of their study, they invited some of our New City School parents to share how they are making a difference.
From 4th grade: Thanks to Gregg and Alyson Garland, Kathy Corbett, Ria Sharon, and Marshall Cohen for speaking at the fourth-Grade Making a Difference Seminar last week. Students chose three of the four speakers to rotate through during the hour. Fourth graders heard stories about giving African children hope, bringing children to the states for medical help, going to another country to give medical help, and how to run a school which encourages students to lift weights to improve their bodies and learning. We all learned a lot!
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From Lucinda and Petra, your PO Chairs: The end of the school is quickly approaching and the PO is planning the final event of the year, the Annual Picnic. It will be Wednesday, May 30, from 5-7:00. It's a new time and new day this year, and we want to include EVERYONE: alums, visiting family for graduating 6th graders and current students, parents, staff and faculty!
The picnic will be different than in past years. We will provide grilled burgers and hot dogs and YOU provide the rest of the picnic for your family. We are encouraging you to bring blankets and chairs and spread out all over the field to make it a real New City community event. There will still be fun activities for the kids, popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy, announcements ,and celebration. Please plan to join!
On Monday, volunteer sign-ups will be in the main lobby. WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please plan to help us prepare throughout the day and into the evening -- there are volunteer needs at every level and at every time available. |
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Q: Why does it feel so busy?
A: Because it IS so busy.
 Here are some of the extras that happen in May: the fifth grade Egg Drop, third grade dioramas, preprimary show, sixth grade trip to the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, AR, fourth grade Poetry Night, sixth grade trip to Chicago, third grade trips to Kampsville, IL, and Busch Stadium, Girls on the Run, Native American Day, River Kids camp-out, kindergarten Busy Body Breakfast, second grade Monument Show and Share, Saturday Ice Cream Social for newly-enrolled families, second grade trip to the Arch, first grade Peter Pan, fifth grade trip to Memphis, Portfolio Night, sixth grade versus staff kickball game, and on and on and on…
This photo is of our fifth graders in Memphis, visiting the National Civil Rights Museum. It's in the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
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Tom owes them an ice cream! |
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 From Joe: It is clear that the kiddos are upping their chess games. Between greater experience and the training with the Chess Team, Tom is facing ever-greater competition.
The following students all pulled out wins against Tom: Clyde Niblett, Isabel Brieler, Henry Edmonds, Ali Swanson-Harker, Ernie McCarter, Reza Mofidi, Tatyana Schmidt, andJay Grove.
From Tom: Groan. They all will enjoy an ice cream celebration with me. |
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 Dr. Patricia Nuernberger, Assistant Head for Academics, returns Monday after being gone for a few months on a sabbatical. Pat studied "executive function" (meta-cognition, how we organize and plan) and continued to work on our New City School curriculum. It will be good to have her back!
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 From Crossroads College Prep: Nell Briggswas named the school’s Post-Dispatch Scholar-Athlete. She will be attending the University of Pennsylvania.
This is a picture of third grader Daniel Martin and his dad, Peter, as they performed for his class last week.
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Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts and feedback in the SPRING PARENT SURVEY that you will receive within the next few days. One is being e-mailed to everyone who receives a PL, so if you don't get your survey, please let me know. Your opinion counts!
Here's a wonderful article from the April 20 NYT, "Teach the Books, Touch the Heart": Emotions and Linguistic.
Last week I recommended Kathryn Schulz's book, Being Wrong and the Margin of Error. Here's a excerpt from it:
"Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane and honorable qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction, and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world.
"By contrast, we positively excel at acknowledging other people’s errors. In fact, if it is sweet to be right, then—let’s not deny it—it is downright savory to point out that someone else is wrong. As any food scientist can tell you, this combination of savory and sweet is the most addictive of flavors: we can never really get enough of reveling in other people’s mistakes."
TOM
Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD
Head of School
trhoerr@newcityschool.org
p.s. The work that you see being done at the intersection of Waterman and Lake is the installation of four new, yet classic-looking street lights. They will increase illumination and aesthetics. The lights are being paid for by the Waterman-Lake Improvement District.
Quote of the week, from Michel Foucault: "The main intent in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning." |
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